Doctor suggests Cape Breton University open medical school

Cape Breton University is seen in this file photo. A local doctor is proposing a school of medicine be started at CBU to help with the doctor shortage in Cape Breton. - Cape Breton Post

Local psychiatrist proposes idea in letter to the editor

SYDNEY, N.S. — A Cape Breton doctor is suggesting that those with a stake in the future of health care on the island get together and work toward opening a medical school at Cape Breton University.

Psychiatrist Dr. Kerry Ann Murray proposed the idea in a letter to the Cape Breton Post this week. She was out of province on vacation and not immediately available for an interview.

“There are examples around the world of medical schools and residency training programs in rural, lower population density locations,” Murray wrote. “If we can train nurses and teachers at Cape Breton University, there is no reason in my mind why we cannot train doctors.”

She noted that the Northern Ontario School of Medicine was established in 2005 and about 10 years ago the University of New Brunswick’s Saint John campus started educating aspiring doctors through a partnership with Dalhousie University.

The suggestion comes in the wake of increasing attention being paid to doctor shortages in Cape Breton. Murray describes her idea as an “optimistic proposal that will bring resident physicians to the island.” She noted that Cape Breton is a training site for Dalhousie University, and therefore has successfully trained medical students and family physicians, including herself, for years.

Murray noted that the longer that a doctor-in-training remains in Cape Breton — from undergraduate studies to medical school to residency — the more likely they would decide to remain here.

If Cape Breton has its own medical school for the island it could set its own criteria for admission, including seats designated for Cape Breton graduates, students from Aboriginal communities and other non-urban areas, as well as international medical graduates.

“CBU could be a Canadian leader in training medical students and residents for the realities of practice outside urban environments — we have an ideal setting with geographic variability within a fairly small area, and a diversity of patients in need,” Murray wrote. “Not all physicians we train will stay of course — the reasons physicians are mobile is multifactorial and requires multiple solutions, including wage parity with other locations.”

Murray said the New Brunswick program accepts students based on geographic criteria, such as being a resident of that province, and suggested Cape Breton could do the same.

“I know the devil is in the details, but if we continue to lose our physician leaders in Cape Breton, we cannot effectively run our health-care system — nor can we train our next generation of physician colleagues.”